Page 73 of Fierce Hope
Jade obeyed, her hand trembling around the key fob. The beep of the door unlocking cut through the silence.
“You drive,” Sarah ordered. “Kid in the back, me in front. No sudden moves.”
Jade slid in behind the wheel, DJ climbing into the rear seat. Sarah took the passenger side, holding the gun low against her lap. Jade started the engine, heart pounding, as Sarah commanded, “Not the main highway. Head for Tinker Pass. We’re going around every traffic camera in this county.”
Jade gripped the steering wheel,mind straining to fashion a plan. The tires rolled slowly out of the lot, snow swirling in the headlight beams. She glanced into the rearview mirror, meeting DJ’s eyes. There was fear there, but also an ember of resolve. They both knew that Sarah intended no mercy once they were isolated. Jade’s chest tightened, but outwardly, she maintained a resigned mask.
“You think Knight Tactical won’t come for DJ?” Jade asked, voice low, hoping to glean more information.
Sarah’s mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “Oh, they’ll be on this, but they’ll be chasing you, not me. Once you vanish from here, you’ll be the top suspect in Kent’s murder. And then there’s the kidnapping.” She clucked disapprovingly. “Taking Deke’s kid as a hostage. Not your smartest plan, but hey, people do dumb stuff all the time, right? Plus, now that I think about it, this gives you way more incentive not to get caught. Deke’ll kill you if he finds you.”
Jade didn’t have to fake the shudder that wracked her frame.
Deke would be murderous, but she prayed Sarah wouldn’t realize who the real target would be until Jade and DJ were safe.
She navigated the sedan onto the road leading up the pine-forested slope. As the sedan climbed higher into the mountains, the snow-laden pine trees closed in around them, and the last faint glow of town lights faded. Streetlamps quickly became rarer, until they disappeared completely, the only illumination her headlights.
Sarah inched the gun up just enough that Jade couldn’t forget it for a second.
DJ shifted in the back seat. “If we’re going up the mountain,” he said, making his tone sound sullen, “we’ll freeze if you drop us off out there. So maybe, I don’t know ... let us off somewhere warmer?”
An icy prickle swept through Jade at how brazenly he tested Sarah, but maybe it served as part of his disaffected teen act.
Sarah glared at him. “Shut up,” she barked. “We’ll do this my way. I told you, I’m taking you to Sacramento. You can catch a bus anywhere you want from there.”
Jade sensed DJ’s silent apology in the mirror—he was bluffing, pushing for a reaction that might reveal something useful. A brilliant, brave kid.
Jade focused on driving, trying to recall every twist of the mountain roads. This route was almost deserted at night. The chance of a random passerby was slim. She felt her pulse beat in her throat, turning each corner with deliberate caution. They had to survive long enough for an opening.
The car’s heater blew warm air against Jade’s face, but her hands remained icy on the wheel. She thought fleetingly of Deke, of how frantic he’d be once their disappearance became known. Tomorrow.
Yes! A flicker of hope beckoned. She wouldn’t show up at work. And DJ’s school would call Deke first thing. They just had to survive the night. And figure out a way to leave breadcrumbs for Deke and his team.
Her only comfort came from the knowledge that she had lived through high-pressure standoffs before—though never one that jeopardized someone she cared for as much as DJ.
Snowfall thickened, drifting across the windshield in swirling arcs. The entire world outside the headlights vanished into a dark void, matching Jade’s sense of isolation. In the passenger seat, Sarah gripped the gun as though it were her lifeline, scanning the darkness for potential threats.
Jade drove on, forcing each inhale to stay calm, waiting for a chance to turn the tables. The night stretched ahead, shadowy and treacherous, with Sarah’s murder plot looming like a blade at their throats. But Jade refused to surrender to the terror, letting only that steely determination guide her actions from here on out.
She would protect DJ, no matter what.
39
Jade’s pulsepounded heavily in her ears, matching the crunching of icy snow beneath her tires as she navigated the isolated mountain roads. The headlights cut a narrow path through the darkness, illuminating walls of snow on either side that closed in with each passing mile. Beside her, Sarah held her pistol steadily, its cold barrel occasionally brushing Jade’s side—a chilling reminder of the mortal danger they faced.
The heater hummed softly, contrasting sharply with the frigid night outside, yet Jade felt cold sweat trickling down her back, fear prickling her skin. Her knuckles had turned white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly.
“Take the next right,” Sarah instructed, her voice unnervingly calm. “Stay on this road.”
Jade obeyed, carefully turning onto an even narrower road that wound higher into the mountains. She’d been watching their route with growing dread. Instead of heading west toward the Sacramento area as Sarah had initially implied, they were traveling north, deeper into the remote wilderness.
A terrible certainty crystallized. Sarah was taking them deep into abandoned logging country, mile upon mile of isolatedforest land where she could bury their bodies under feet of snow, where no one would think to look.
She pictured Sarah’s plan clearly now: kill them both, remove the identifying info from Jade’s car and abandon it in some crime-ridden neighborhood in the Bay Area where it would be quickly stripped for parts—erasing the evidence completely. The perfect crime. No bodies. No car. No connection to Sarah.
Except the surveillance cams Deke had planted at Jade’s condo. He hadn’t removed them. A new glimmer of hope shot through her. If she could just keep DJ alive tonight, Deke would be on the way.
He and his team would figure this out.
